When I was at Rice University, so many decades ago, I played a lot of bridge. I was only mediocre but enjoyed it. We had a professor, Dr. Culbertson, who was a bridge Life Master at an early age. He was single and lived in our college, playing bridge with us almost every night. He was a master of the 'end game.' He had an uncanny ability to seemingly force his opponents into no win situations, understanding where the cards had to lie and taking advantage.

Traveling in London and on into Europe, I have some time to think away from the tyranny of the computer. Over the last year, and especially the last few months, I have written in depth about the problems we face all across the developed world. We have no good choices left, only hopefully choosing the correct unpleasant choice is now our option.